Rival!
by Steampunkd7
Summary: After Juvia doses Gray with "Love" potion, but before he reaches Galuna Island, Gray runs into some familiar faces. Lyon's in the middle of a job, and he is not amused at seeing Gray in such a state.


In hindsight, Lyon would admit that going after a kraken with a four man team was a bad idea. He knew that krakens were tough, and had excellent resistance to magic, but he'd never expected one to be this powerful.

"Reitei! It's immune to my paralyze magic! It's immune!" Toby was wailing like a stuck pig as he ran along one of the monster's massive tree-sized tentacles, slashing with his nails whenever he got the chance.

"Seaweed Doll! Tangle it up good!"

"Ice Make: Eagle!" Lyon sent a barrage of ice formed birds at the creature's main body but they were deflected by one of the tentacles.

"Look out!" Yuka was suddenly there, putting up a force field to block another tentacle that nearly sideswiped Lyon.

"Thanks," Lyon said. He wiped away a few drops of sweat from his forehead. "This monster is one tough opponent."

"High magic resistance, complete toxin resistance, and, oh yes, we're fighting it in the middle of the ocean." Yuka chuckled without any humor. "What we need is to hamper it more before we attack. These tentacles keep getting in the way."

"Yeah," Lyon agreed.

"Can you do something with your ice make? Create shackles or a cage or something?"

"I won't be able to make them fast enough," said Lyon. "Living Ice forms are the only things I can create instantaneously. Static forms will take me too long. You saw how long it took me to create these icebergs."

They were battling the kraken from dozens of massive platforms of ice that Lyon had created beforehand. Without them, they'd either have to be fighting from a ship, which would have been torn apart by now, or fight it while swimming, which wasn't a good idea either since it invited drowning.

"Well, we have to come up with something better than this." Yuka was starting to look worried too. "We're not in a good position here."

"I'm not panicking! Who says I'm panicking!" shouted Toby from where he had gotten trapped, wrapped up in the kraken's tentacle.

"Toby!" Sherry's doll had managed to tangle up two tentacles, but there were dozens more between her and Toby.

"Hang on!" shouted Lyon. He summoned himself a sword of ice, one of the few static ice creations he had practiced enough to be able to make instantaneously, and leapt on the closest tentacle.

"Lyon-sama! Be careful!"

Lyon didn't answer. He was too busy concentrating as he sprinted the length of the tentacle, across the top of the kraken's main body, and to where Toby was being squeezed so tightly that his face was actually turning green. "Take this!"

He stabbed his sword into the kraken's leg as deep as it would go and jerked it sideways leaving a huge jagged wound. He hadn't done nearly enough to sever it, but he did do enough to make it drop Toby.

"Ha!" Lyon exhaled triumphantly and changed his aim toward the kraken's main body. "Ice Make: Ape!"

An ice formed ape materialized above the kraken's head and brought both its fists down, denting the kraken's skull. The kraken made a hideous squealing sound then shot three tentacles toward Lyon at once.

He dodged the first one and just managed to avoid the second one, but the third one got him and suddenly Lyon found himself trapped. One arm was pressed against his side, the other was free, but from his position there wasn't much he could do. The monster's grip on him was growing ever tighter, crushing the breath from his lungs and making his ribs scream in pain. He could actually hear them starting to crack.

"Lyon-sama! No!"

"Lyon!"

"Reitei!"

_"AHHHHHHRRGHHH!" _

The familiar, yet unexpected scream would have made Lyon's eyes bulge with surprise, if they hadn't already been bulging from their sockets because of the pressure being put on his body. For a second he would have sworn he was having auditory hallucinations, because that enraged scream sounded an awful lot like the only other ice wizard he knew.

"Ice Make: Battle Axe!"

An enormous ice formed battle axe appeared above the kraken and lopped off the entire arm that had Lyon pinned. Lyon managed to push off the severed limb and propel himself back onto one of his icebergs to avoid falling into the water. Eyes still bulging, he turned to find Gray _standing_ in the middle of the water, floating as though his body were made of ice rather than swimming, as he was surrounded by a weirdly violent looking purple light.

"Gray?" he asked incredulously.

"Hey! It's that guy from Galuna Island!" shouted Toby. "Blue, I think his name was!"

Lyon had never been so happy to see his kouhai. Even if he and Gray weren't friends, Gray had just saved him from being crushed like a bug. But that didn't mean he wasn't surprised to see him there.

"Gray, what are you doing here?" he asked. His voice was hoarse from being squeezed so tightly and his chest hitched painfully as he spoke.

Gray glared at him with eyes that were actually glowing. His expression was almost as furious as when he'd found out that Lyon knew he was melting Ur's ice, and never before had Lyon seen him look so deranged.

"What the _hell_ is this?" screamed Gray. He turned away from Lyon toward the kraken. "You there! How dare you interfere?"

The kraken lashed out at Gray, but stalagmites of ice erupted from the ground to pierce each tentacle that came Gray's way before they came anywhere near the deranged ice mage.

"Can't you see I'm trying to have a showdown with my lifelong rival? What do you think you're doing getting in my way, you bastard?"

"Uh . . ." Yuka had caught up to Lyon, ready to cover his flank if need be. The uncertainty and confusion was clearly written on his face. "Did that guy come all the way out here just to fight you, Lyon?"

Lyon shook his head. "I don't know."

"Do you intend to make me your rival as well?" Gray was talking to the kraken now. "You may have twenty-seven limbs and I may only have four, but I have magic and you don't! Therefore we are even! You, monster, are now my rival!"

"What is he talking about, Lyon?" Yuka asked.

"I just said I don't know!"

"EAT THIS!" Ice spikes erupted out of the water, from a multitude of different directions, piercing the kraken's tentacles and main body, not deeply enough to kill it, but definitely enough to do some damage.

"Hey! How come his magic is having more of an effect than ours! And what's that guy doing here?" asked Toby. He hurried over to join Lyon and Yuka, reaching them at about the same time that Sherry jumped onto their iceberg as well.

"I don't know why he's here! I guess to challenge me," said Lyon.

"His magic must be having more of an effect because the ice itself doesn't have as much magic as Lyon's," said Yuka. "His creations are static rather than alive, so they don't need to be infused with magic. And there's not much in this world with resistance to being stabbed by large foreign objects."

"Lyon-sama . . . is your fellow pupil glowing?" asked Sherry.

"Stop asking me questions about that idiot! He has nothing to do with me!"

Yuka snickered.

"Shut up," Lyon told him. "This isn't funny."

"No, it's hilarious," said Yuka. His oversized eyebrows twitched frantically as he struggled to hold back laughter.

"Could this be your fellow pupil's love?"

Lyon decided that question didn't even merit a response. "I don't know what he thinks he's playing at, taking our job –"

"We'd be in more trouble if he hadn't come along," said Yuka. "If he wants a share of the reward I say we give it to him."

"It sounds more like he wants a grudge match with Reitei," said Toby. "I think maybe we should give that to him too."

"No! Lyon-sama is injured!" said Sherry.

"I am not," growled Lyon.

"And now I destroy you, you sorry excuse for a rival! ICE GEYSER!"

Lyon turned just in time to see Gray's finishing attack. What was left of the kraken, which wasn't that much since most of its tentacles had been amputated by ice, was skewered from beneath by fast forming crystals of ice.

"Would you look at that? He did it," said Toby. "Way to go Green!"

Lyon couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive as Gray turned toward him, breathing heavily from the workout that the kraken had given him. His kohai had grown stronger since their last encounter. Much stronger. Even after using that much magic he wasn't even winded. In his current state, with his own ribs protesting with every breath he drew, Lyon wasn't sure he'd even be able to put up much of a fight.

"Gray . . ." he said, not sure what else to say in the face of those scary glowing eyes.

"And now we return to our showdown, my lifelong rival," Gray said menacingly. "Don't you even dare try to go easy on me just because I had to take care of another rival before could deal with you!"

"Gray, I don't know what brought this on all of a sudden, but!"

"Don't you dare look down on me horizon! I'll take you on! You know what you are? MY RIVAL!"

"Gray, what –!"

Before Lyon could say anything else Gray had sprinted past him at full speed, running on top of the ocean as if it were a path, and screaming taunts and challenges to the horizon all the while.

"What . . . what was that?" asked Yuka as they all watched him go.

"Don't ask me, I don't know," said Lyon. "I'm not that idiot's keeper."

"Is that his way of saying we don't have to thank him?" asked Toby.

"Whatever. Let's just go home and get our reward," said Lyon.

"Lyon-sama . . . do you think that maybe we should go after him and make sure he's okay?" asked Sherry.

"No, I don't think. If he wants to chase the horizon that's his own problem. Now let's _go."_

"That glow around him, and his sudden psychosis might have been caused by a bad reaction to a potion," commented Yuka. He kept his tone quite neutral, but Lyon could tell his friend was watching him closely. "It's possible that he might not be as alright as you'd like to believe. Are you sure you want to leave him alone?"

"Damn that stupid weakling," muttered Lyon. "Getting done in by a potion. At the very least I guess I should make sure he doesn't go drop dead." He sighed as he tried to figure out the best way to follow Gray, since running on top of the water wasn't an option for him and his team. "The things I do for you, kouhai . . ."


End file.
